I had this huge debate with regard to our vision of Google's future today. The question was whether Google should stay focused on developing its distinctive competence: being a superior search solution, and monetize through advertising, or whether it should branch into new ideas such as Checkout functions or even desktop products. Personally, I think it's crucial that Google to strike a balance between external acquisition and internal development for these reasons:

In terms of internal development, Google’s ultimate mission is to serve as a superior search function for people. So due to the saturation of the market in web search and consistency with company culture, I believe Google should leverage core tech to expand into niche search markets and strengthen additional platforms. More specifically, google should expand into niche search markets or industries where information needs to be more open and organized, for instance, the arts industry, the fashion industry, etc. In additionally, I believe small mobile devices will continue to grow in terms of user base, especially in emerging economies where more people could afford such devices. Therefore, creating applications that ties in with its platform should also be a part of Google’s platform development.

Externally, Google, by becoming or adopting the image of Microsoft has brought negative attention to many other high-growth companies, increasing hostility and competition from companies including Microsoft, Ebay, etc. To avoid multiple organizations joining hands to go up against the giant and hence, increasing costs like it has been in the past few years. Google needs to learn to adopt new market in a subtler manner. Instead of creating all functionalities explicitly under Google’s name, acquire small enterprises that serve similar functions and avoid too much publicity during the acquisition.

Item number 8 of Google's philosophy highlights the importance of going across borders. Neighboring Asian countries such as Japan (38.20% of market share), and South Korea (3% of market share) fancy locally flavored search engines such as Yahoo Japan over Google, seeing it as a form of “cultural imperialism”. In the end of the day, Google is user-based and a service product. Creating fear among users, in addition to competitors, weakens the potential growth of all other platform products it is developing. The solution to this ties in with the discrete acquisition suggestion- to create products that are culturally sensitive.

So instead of attempting to produce additional breakthrough products, I believe Google should keep in mind its core philosophies and focus in, with cultural sensitivity in mind, strengthening additional platforms and expanding into niche search market.